


Jim and the Cyborg

by TheVampireAvatar



Category: Treasure Planet (2002)
Genre: I'll add more tags as the story progresses, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-16
Updated: 2017-01-15
Packaged: 2018-09-17 20:42:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9343052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheVampireAvatar/pseuds/TheVampireAvatar
Summary: Kinda follows the plot of Beauty and the Beast. Silver and his crew are cursed to stay upon a planet. Jim ends up on the planet and is trapped with Silver. Together they soon learn what it means to fall in love and have the chance to break the curse.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wuffen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wuffen/gifts), [thequeercolonel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thequeercolonel/gifts).



> This work is dedicated to sorasusi (wuffen) and colonel_bastard because they're basically like the gods of the treasure planet fandom and I love literally all of their work. In fact, I'm going to use some of their work to inspire some scenes in this :) I highly recommend going to see their work!! 
> 
> I also hate leaving this as a chaptered story-I originally planned on having this be one HUGE ASS one shot, but after two days of writing and editing I was like "bro." So I'm hopefully going to have it done within the week? Cross your fingers ladies and gents.

When people hear about the adventures of pirates they imagine one of two things: the first being the fantasy route. With all the songs and lively actions that they take, how each time the main crew ends up with the treasure of a lifetime and everybody lives happily ever after. Of course, this route is more geared towards kids. The second, being the more realistic route, usually accompanied by the more gruesome details that’re left out of the fairytales for a few good reasons. Take the ever present smell of death in the air, the raids of villages and towns, the backstabbing loyalty of the crew, the bloodthirsty captain, and of course, the rare treasure for example. Rarely does this type of piracy end up well or happy for any involved. 

But one thing that both routes of pirate tales have in common is treasure. Our pirates in this story are indeed after such luxuries and will end up with it, but at a grave cost that most weren’t willing to take. This particular bunch of space pirates aren’t as famous as say, Captain Flint, nor do they have the loot of a thousand worlds, but they have their own legend: the Curse of Candide. This is the tale of how they first got the curse, how they struggled with it, and of course, how they solved it in the end. It may not have the typical happy ending as the first route, and definitely has more of the elements in the second, but things will always find a way in life as our Space Pirate Captain will soon find out. 

Captain John Silver was in charge of one of the more fearsome ships that sailed throughout the galaxy. He was constantly sniffing out the gold and jewels that hid deep within the universe. And he did a pretty damn good job at it too, which was why anyone who was a pirate has at least heard of his name if not his work. Of course, he’s had to give up a few things in order to chase down his precious dreams and desires-a lot of crew members, a few ships, even down to his body parts. He’s had all of these things replaced and was willing to push through these delays in his dream if only to finally get his hands on what he wanted most: treasure. And of course, when the cyborg learned of the Treasure of Candide, also known as the Lost World’s treasure, how could he possible have said no? He’d grown up hearing of the world’s loot-why not be the one to own it’s riches? 

Legend has it that the Lost World of Candide was said to have contained the rarest of treasures- so massive that it would take days and armies to take away all the riches. It took up an entire cavern just to be able to store it all in one place. The world was a small one and mainly existed to hide it all. However, the world was lost in the galaxy-nobody knew where it went. It was said to have been deserted in an empty quadrant of the universe. Only the truly lost and desperate would be able to have half a hope to find it. And even then, it was buried deep within the tunnels of the world. Only those who were willing to risk it all were going to have a shot at achieving it alive. While the planet wasn’t quite as famous as the infamous Treasure Planet, it was still pretty well known. 

Silver knew the legend of course-so did anybody with half a mind about piracy or treasure- but he didn’t care. All that Captain Silver wanted was to be able to find the bloody planet and get its riches so he could live the rest of his life in style. That’s why he threw out all the maps he had in his stock and just set sail, no particular course in mind. He didn’t have a particular direction or clue where it could be. He could be sailing his crew in the entirely wrong direction without even knowing it! And while that probably would be the case, he would try his damned best to keep it out of his mind. If he was just wasting his time he probably would end up killing something (or somebody). But what he did know is that if he was to even hope about getting that treasure he would have to go off the maps and let himself and his crew be lost. 

By the time that he’d achieved this, the crew was ready to kill him. No doubt about it. They thought that he’d been planning to have them all die out in the middle of nowhere, leave them all to die and get the treasure for himself, or had no idea where the treasure actually was. Only the latter was true, but he certainly wasn’t going to mention that to them. The bloodthirsty lot was mutinous, only after the loot like himself, and were going to kill him soon if they didn’t get what they were looking for. The only reason he had their respect in the first place was because he was the captain of the lot and had been for a long time-they all knew the stories about him and none wanted to be the first to challenge him alone. But be as that may, that didn’t mean they weren’t willing to start together. 

Captain Silver looked over his crew as they sailed in the darkest parts of space he’d ever seen. It wasn’t dangerous or anything, in fact they hadn’t seen a single planet in ages, but it was just that-dark. The only light available to them was the stars surrounding them. The shipmates were muttering among themselves as they sailed on. Silver wasn’t dumb, he was one of the sharpest aboard the ship in fact, and he knew what a mutiny looked like when it was forming. He was running out of time to find the planet and fast. But what choice did he have but to continue to sail on? If he admit that he’d been steering them in a random course or turn back now they would definitely pull a mutiny on him and he could kiss his life goodbye. 

Before any of them really knew what was coming to them, the shout of alarm came from the crow’s nest. 

An asteroid field?! Here? Silver ran over to the side of the ship to lean over and see if he was right about it. Dread filled the captain’s chest as he realized that his crew wasn’t lying to him this time. There, in front of the ship, was an entire cluster of asteroids. Cursing his luck, Silver had commanded his crew with the best of his ability, even taking charge of the wheel to steer his ship out of harm’s way. But because of the unpredictability of the damned rocks, it was near impossible, even for someone of his skill. Silver was vaguely aware of his beloved shapeshifted hiding in fear against his shoulder, which brought him some comfort in this terrifying time. His ship was struck heavily and they began to descend. Reports of the damaged engine had filled the ship and his crew, while trained for situations like this, hesitated from fear. Panic filled the crew, some of them even desperate enough to jump overboard once they saw the amount of life threatening danger they were facing. 

Yet Silver was able to maintain his cool and continued to guide the ship as best as he could as it plummeted. Without the engines they wouldn’t be able to get anywhere, and the damage they had taken from the asteroids was far too much to be repaired. He guided the ship throughout the maze of space rocks and came close to crashing the ship entirely multiple times. For somebody of his skills, this was the most challenging thing he’d face yet. He was almost tempted to let go of the wheel and say his prayer to whatever gods that may be out there to listen to his pleas of mercy. 

Then, in the corner of his eye, he saw a flash of purple. Against the starry surroundings, it was almost near impossible to see. If he hadn’t been busy guiding the ship through the field, he wouldn’t have ever even seen it. Without a second thought, he drove the wheel sharply in the direction of the planet. Without a doubt, it was the Lost Planet of Candide. With determination in his eyes, he set course for the planet below and prepared himself for the atmosphere to jolt the ship when it entered the planet’s gravitational pull. Silver eventually let go of the wheel and joined his crow to race down below deck where the skiffs were stationed. 

He and the remaining crew members boarded the skiffs and escaped from the ship, letting it takes it’s course however it pleased at that point. Of course, Silver was beyond fury at that point. He had lost some of his crew (no matter how cowardly they were, he could’ve used their skills, dammit! Only later when they had the treasure in their grasp would he have killed them for leaving them to die.), and now he had lost his ship. That ship was his only way off this planet and how he was going to go home...wherever that would be after he got his treasure. The skiffs were good for a joy ride or for an escape such as this one, but they would never make it as far as they needed to in them. Not to mention there wouldn’t be enough room for the treasure, the crew, and whatever supplies they needed to go that distance. 

With a scowl, he ordered the crew to dive down so they could explore this planet and take the treasure. 

The days the crew and their captain had spent out there were harsh. They had encountered some animals, that had tried to attack them at every turn, but other than that it had seemed like the entire planet was just rocks and forest. It was heavy set with tons of trees and bushes, there weren’t any paths for them to follow so they had to make their own. The weather was even worse-only once had it actually been sunny with no clouds, all the other days were filled with rain that froze over in the cool nights. The sky was just a deep purple on the nights when the clouds weren’t out, and they could see the galaxies up above, but what was the use of beauty when it was too cold to even sleep in fear of never waking up? Silver had lost two crewmembers to the elements, even with the fires they had built. Even Morph was starting to feel the harsh effects of the weather and had begun to cling closer to Silver and stopped changing forms for the time being.

While the crew was having a rough time, it was beginning to get a bit harder for him especially because his mechanical parts would freeze in place or would get stuck somewhere and wouldn’t let him move for a while. Silver would always curse his luck and the gods at that point and would force himself to carry on. He didn’t want to die when he was so close to his treasure. And like the stubborn cyborg he was, he continued to push through, knowing somehow his luck would turn around. 

It had taken a few days for them to walk far enough to find any sort of clue to what this planet had to offer. Or, actually, it was the first sign of any sort of civilization out there. It was in the middle of a blizzard when one of the crew had spotted a castle up on one of the hills. With his robotic eye, Silver was able to zoom in on it and was pleased to discover it looked like it was decent enough for them to stay and take shelter in. In fact, not only was it just decent, the castle was magnificent. Upon first glance, Silver could tell that whoever had built it here must’ve been rich because the opulent castle was huge and well kept. It was the standard castle Silver remembered from those fairy tales he would hear as a child-towers, the gates, even down to the gargoyles who guarded some of the windows. Without much of any other option, he began to lead the trek down to the castle.

It hadn’t taken much to enter the castle gates. Silver and the rest of the crew were beyond exhausted at this point, so without much of a fuss, Silver whirled out his cannon and blasted the gate apart. The crew cheered as the dust cleared and the all ran into the castle without a second thought. The thing about coming into someplace warm when it’s freezing inside is that it takes a few seconds for the warmth to actually do anything. While waiting for the warmth to penetrate his frozen skin, Silver simply stood there and leaned against the wall for support. His mechanical arm and leg do diddly squat against the freezing temperatures and would leave him exhausted for days afterwards. It’s why he avoided planets like this. With a deep breath, he began to stand and feel his fingertips for what felt like the first time in years. He looked over at his crew, most of them doing the same, and spoke to them in a soft voice. 

He commanded that they stick together and not to wander off. They didn’t know who or what was in the castle and they needed to explore it for signs of the treasure. He also commanded that they be silent and stealthy in case anybody in there didn’t know about their intrusion. If the owners of the castle were here, it would be better to try and ambush them to try and get information about the whereabouts of the loot. The crew heartedly agreed and after they got their wits back, headed off in a random direction to explore the castle, once again led by their Captain Silver. 

Much like the outside, the inside of the castle was one of magnificent beauty. Everything in there screamed luxury, from the paintings on the walls of famous events to the floors who had texture and patterns. Everywhere they turned, the area of the castle was well decorated and styled to perfection. It must’ve cost a fortune to build a place like this, but to Silver that only meant that a handful of his treasure had been wasted on a castle like this. He grunted and tried to eye the walls and decorations around him. The walls had such poise designs on them, it almost made Silver feel unwelcome. Their styles were definitely opposite-he, a scrappy old pirate who was missing parts- and the entire castle-one of style and grace. But regardless, the group pushed onwards. 

As luck would have it, Silver was indeed right about the inhabitants. A man and a woman lived in the castle together as lovers and didn’t take notice of them entering. It wasn’t too surprising after all, this planet was so deserted and the castle was massive in size. It’s no wonder that they didn’t hear them entering, especially when they were being stealthy. 

The two humans were sleeping in their bed when the pirates had found them. It was all over at that point for the humans. Silver signalled to surround them and he crept up to them, pointing his gun and cocking it. Another crewmember had crept up to the male and crossed his swords at his throat. The female stirred at the sound and awoke to a gun pointed to her face and swords at her lover’s neck. Reasonably, she began to panic. 

After arousing her male counterpart awake and dragging both of them out of bed, Silver got the information he needed out of them- the location of the loot. Apparently the castle was the entrance to the maze of tunnels that lead to where it was all being stored. It was only a few staircases away from them. The crew began to cheer, but Silver silenced them before they could celebrate for too long. How did they know it wasn’t a trap? After all, they were pirates who were threatening to kill them. The humans had to have had somebody here before to build the castle for them, right? And yet nobody knew where the planet was? It seemed too easy. 

“Let them lead us t’ the treasure.” 

The crew celebrated at that and the pair of them seemed to grow paler in the little light available to them in the room. 

Deep under the castle, it took almost an entire hour to get to the location of the treasure. The woman was being coerced to lead the group of pirates and her lover down. Directly behind her, aiming a gun at her back, was Silver with the rest of the crew, pushing and shoving the tied up man along. There wasn’t any light this deep down, as Silver had figured. And for that exact reason, some of the crew members were carrying torches they had made out of the bed sheets, tables legs, and other furniture they had scavenged in the castle above them. It must’ve been agitating to the couple of humans, but they said nothing. They didn’t even complain once, they simply cooperated with anything Silver had ordered them to do. 

When he finally saw the first gleam of gold, he stopped the rest of the crew and ordered the woman to continue on. She did without hesitation, though she did lock eyes with her lover before moving, and stepped into a large cavern that laid before them. Water trickled down onto the rocks below, creating puddles and in some parts, small ponds. Large satellites and other cave formations surrounded them, especially the further the cave went. Despite there being no light filtering in, the cavern was filled with a soft blue tone. The bright orange flames contrasted with it, but nobody was there to view the beauty of the flame’s reflections against the wet rock formations. But what had Silver and the rest of the crew so fascinated was the gold and jewels that was before them. It must’ve been billions of coins, diamonds, pearls, anything. If you named it, it was there. 

It wasn’t as great as legend said about Treasure Planet, not by far, but this definitely close. It filled the entire cavern from rim to rim. Mountains of the loot were piled throughout the area and seemed to dazzle from the light's’ reflection. The legend did it no justice, it would take months to get all of this out of here. He was right about losing his crewmates earlier, he definitely could have used any extra hands he could to help move every last coin out of there. He stepped forward, next to the women and gasped at all the glittering gold. Silver was able to see that parts of the treasure was underwater, but to him that only meant that he’d have to send some of his crew searching through the water to make sure that they pick up all the gold that they could. 

And speaking of his crew…

Most of them had gone wild and were beginning to jump around the room, already taking claim to some of the loot. A few wiser members stuck by Silver’s side with the taken hostages. The woman remained where she stood, her back to Silver and his remaining crew members. The man was still being held behind him and was desperately looking at his lover. Silver noticed this and began to think. He wasn’t a fool, far from. In fact, if anybody were to ask, they’d probably use the words greedy and clever somewhere in their description of him. 

So, he wondered about the pair of them. They had everything they could possibly have wanted: the riches of a lifetime, a castle, a romance….so why did they so willingly lead the pirates to their source of...everything, basically? When Silver asked them this, the man responded with a simple answer: “We’d rather be left with nothing but each other rather than lose the other and have the treasure. Life wouldn’t be worth living without her.” 

The woman nodded, giving him a tender smile. He returned the smile and his gaze softened. Silver nodded to the crew member behind the man, who cut the ropes that bound him. The man looked over his shoulder, as if doubting that he was really being released. It took him like two seconds before he shrugged it off and ran over to join his lover. The two embraced and murmured comforting words to one another. 

Silver turned away from the couple and his crew to go explore the vast amounts of treasure that was before him. As he was examining the wondrous loot, grabbing some and letting the coins fall back to the ground, he couldn’t help but smile proudly. At last, his work was for something once more. He’d have to find a way to rebuild his ship and possibly get his skiffs down here. As he was pondering over all of this, a loud sound shot through the area and surprised him. Yet, his body reacted on instinct and he turned as quickly as the shot behind him with his pistol at the ready. 

Before him was a scene he hadn’t expected. The man was lying in a puddle of his own blood on some of the treasure, clearly dead. His lover was screaming and sobbing above him as she tried to desperately wake him from his incurable sleep. The rest of the crew had stopped in what they were doing and were paying full attention to the scene, much like Silver himself. They were pirates, after all, when they hear a gunshot behind them, they react instantly. Silver didn’t have to look behind him to know that they were all bearing their weapons and were ready for a strife. 

Above the couple, his crew member stood above them. He was the one to have a hold on the man on the way down here, he was holding the man when Silver spoke to the crew, he was the one who cut him free. Silver shifted his gaze back to the fallen man and his lover, still sobbing over him, and looked back up to the crew member. When he questioned his actions, the crew member simply shrugged and said “Why not?” 

The woman at this remark snapped her head up, teeth bared. She began to scream at all of them for taking everything she owned. Silver tried to reason with her, try to ease her down off of her rage, but she was having none of it. The woman continued to shout at all of them. Not only that, but she bent over, picked up some of the treasure, and threw it at them, telling them that they could have it, that she didn’t want it without her lover. 

At this point, Silver moved in. He told the woman that she needed to calm down, but she refused. She continued to scream at all of them and shook her head. Her eyes were full of emotion-rage, indescribable misery, and especially unshielded pain. Silver had only seen that type of pain once before and he had a constant reminder of what that felt like. His mechanical hand twitched upon seeing it and he took a step back. And if this lass was anything like he was then that meant that she wasn’t going to give up her love for just anything. 

“Y-you pirates took away my...M-Montague.” She sobbed, the name almost dragging her back down to her knees. The man, apparently named Montague, was still beside the women. His dried blood was on her hands, which were now shaking wildly as he pointed them at Silver. Her chest was hitching with each breath she took and she had to take tiny steps to try and keep her balance. “You took away everything from me. So you can have it.” She kicked more treasure towards the pirates. “B...but hear me now.” Her finger still pointed at Silver, she barked her curse at him, “you won’t leave this damned planet. No, not until you feel my pain. You’ll be stuck here until a loved one’s blood is spilt on this treasure.

“It’s your crew that shot him dead. It’s your leadership that didn’t stop him.” She seemed to have gathered more courage and staggered forward, almost slipping on some blood soaked coins at her feet. “So it’ll be your loved one’s blood who will soak these damned coins!” 

And so the curse was set. Soon after, she took her own life with a blade she had concealed the entire time. Most of the crew didn’t believe what she had said, Silver himself included in that lot, but some were worried about what she said. Almost to the point of fear itself. Not trying to scare the rest of the crew, Silver attempted to bring the treasure back up through the tunnels and board the skiffs, but he found that they wouldn’t work. He was able to lug the chests of gold up through all right, but when it came time to board the skiffs, he couldn’t get the engines to run. When he checked them to see if it was a mechanical problem, he was shocked to find that everything was in order. It was as if a mysterious force was preventing them to run. 

And to make matters worse, a terrible blizzard began that night. The wind was howling worse than any of them had ever seen before, bringing shards of ice whirling around them that stung at their skin and eyes. The snow quickly built up over a short period of time, sending chills to Silver inside and out. Maybe that lass had some truth behind her final words after all. 

Soon it became apparent that they weren’t going to leave anytime soon. The days turned into weeks, the weeks into months. After about half a standard year of staying in the castle, majority of the crew had enough of this treatment. They realized that they were stuck there, without a hope of somebody else finding the damned planet or leaving it on their own, so they set out on their own. They all blamed Silver for what had happened for his lack of leadership or whatever. Apparently the girl had not only damned him to live his life in the castle, but had damned him to live it alone. Well, mostly alone. He still had his shapeshifter that he so loved. 

The years had passed and the crew met up with Silver only when they either needed something or wanted to have a meeting to see if anybody had ever come. He knew that they were more interested in seeing if the curse was any closer to being lifted and with a heavy heart, he told them no each time. Eventually they stopped coming altogether. He didn’t know where they were lurking, but he knew it couldn’t have been too far from where the castle was. The elements or the animals would’ve gotten to them if they had strayed too far without any form of shelter.

Eventually throughout the years, the legendary treasure of the Lost Planet Candide became an old legend, then a myth, then a forgotten truth. During these years, Silver began to lose all hope that somebody was every going to return, but kept on going throughout the days in the castle. If he was ever going to get out of here, he had to keep trying. And like the stubborn cyborg he was, he continued to push through, knowing somehow his luck would turn around. 

 

Our story begins like most others: a clear day on the normal planet of Montressor. And by clear, of course, that only meant that the fog was light enough where you were actually able to see through it. Light beams broke through the clouds, allowing rays of light to shine down upon the small village near the ravines and cliffs. Though the houses were scattered and they had to make adjustments often for the constant rainfall, it was as nice as any other village. They had plenty of food, lots of jobs, and everybody knew each other. It was like one big family. Some would question their simple life, but most who lived there enjoyed it and would carry out their work-especially on days like this. 

It wasn’t going to rain today, so it allowed all of the villagers to get their errands done. Days like this were pretty rare around these parts, so the villagers took this whenever they could. And of course, that meant the entire town was buzzing with activity-people walking to and from the shops in the main section of the town, horse like creatures would carry goods and merchandise for their owners, the rare travelers would bask in awe at the surprising activity the town would offer that day. The young men would help their parents with whatever needed to be done-repairing roofs, buying food in the market, moving the animals, what have you. And of course, the young women would flirt with them on the side or watch dreamily from the distance at their potential lovers. Everybody in the town contributed in some way.

Except for Jim Hawkins. 

Instead of helping his mom out at the local Benbow Inn or having a job of his own, he was flying his solar surfer. It was a perfect day for it too-no rain, the light was finally breaking through the clouds, and the wind was blowing just enough to give his arms something to push against as he cut through the sky. All in all, it was the ideal day for his favorite pastime. While he did get in trouble with the authorities, more than he would’ve liked, it usually helped calm him down. Up there in the sky, there was no worries. He didn’t have to think about anything that normally bothered him, he only had to focus on where he was going. There wasn’t anybody to criticize him or complain about his manners, nothing. It was just him and the clouds. 

As he flew over the village, he saw them turn their heads up just in time to see him whiz by. He rarely would fly over the village due to their overwhelming negative opinion about him. They had labeled him an outcast as soon as he could walk on his own two feet. He had to play by himself as a child and never really had anybody to call friend. He was used to it by now, of course, but it would still occasionally take a toll on both him and his mother. He’d get lonely at times but had found two things that would always help fix that: mechanics and solar surfing. The two often came hand in hand as he had built his own surfer at the tender age of eight. But where he found things to help distract him, Sarah Hawkins had not. It had worried his mother to no end when he was younger that he had no friends. She had always forced him to go to more social events his classmates attended but eventually gave up after all the failed attempts. 

He knew she meant well though, after all, she actually tried to help him. His father would normally just turn the other way or walk out of the room whenever the subject of his lack of friends came up. 

With a grunt, Jim accelerated the thrusters and pointed his chin down. Thoughts about his father were always well handled up here, the perfect place to unwind and get out all his worries. With a shit of the feet for better balance, he soared over the ravine. The village was long out of sight at this point and that was totally fine with the boy. Here, he could do whatever he so pleased. He began to weave through rock formations and began to race against himself. The wind began to pick up with more force and pushed against him, whipping his hair back and forth as he flew faster. Coming out of the mountain area, the open land stretched out before him. He could see everything that his planet had to offer below him and there was nothing to stop him from racing above it. 

These were the moments he lived for. 

“Yeah, baby, come on!” He yelled into the open sky. A flock of birds flew by him for a while. They were used to the particular human boy up here at this point so it’s nothing new for either species. He always enjoyed flying next to the wildlife. For some reason it gave him a sense of companionship, however brief it may be. Jim glanced over at the birds and grinned widely, reaching out his hand to try and pet one (or at least touch it) in flight. The one he reached for cawed in protest and shifted just out of reach of his outstretched fingers. Jim chuckled to himself lightly and turned his attention back to the sky. 

Jim decided it was time to head back to the inn his mother ran once the light began to fade from the sky. He hadn’t tried solar surfing without light yet, but even he knew that it was a risky gamble he wasn’t going to take. Besides, his board ran on light. Take away the main fuel source and you end up with one way ticket to pain. And while he did come home with some scrapes and bruises before he didn’t exactly plan on coming home with broken bones just quite yet.

He could see the lights coming from the Benbow before he could make out the building itself. It sat on top of one of the higher hills next to the village. Lots of people usually stayed there in the summer, but now was one of the slower times. Sarah was still kept busy with it, but if Jim were to disappear for a day, he wouldn’t be missed. 

“Jim!” His mother, serving guests tirelessly, snapped at him upon his entering. “Where have you been? I haven’t seen you all day and you come in almost past curfew and-yes, I know you still need your refill, if you could just give me one second-do you know how worried I’ve been?” 

“Mom, really,” Jim interrupted as he picked up some dishes to take them back to the kitchen. It was almost natural to come back home and go straight to work for him at this point. “It’s fine. I know what I’m doing. You don’t need to worry.”

“Don’t need to worry?” She turned her head to him as she put down plates full of fresh food down on a nearby table, trying desperately to ignore the constant chatter around her to focus on her son. “Jim, you’ve been gone for hours! For all I know, you could’ve been kidnapped, or your solar surfer could’ve crashed, you could’ve gotten into trouble again and been-”

Jim turned his head to her with a blank, almost hurt, face. 

Sarah glared desperately at him. “You know what I mean.” 

“Mom, I told you, it’s fine. You don’t need to worry about me, it probably would just give you less trouble.” He continued to bust the table he was working on, keeping busy so he wouldn’t have to look up at her face and just see her disappointed look she usually wore when he did something wrong...which was often. 

“Yes, I know you say that it’s fine, but honey, it’s really not.” 

Jim began to shuffle towards the kitchen, arms to the brim with dishes, and shook his head. “For you, maybe.” 

Sarah sighed impatiently and looked at the guests, most staring at the duo at this point. She looked back at her son and walked over to him. She placed a hand on his shoulder with a grip that only a mom would give her troubled son. With a softer voice, she began to talk to him quietly so the guests who were listening in wouldn’t be able to hear. “Look, I can’t handle you and the guests at the same time. We’ll talk about this later, but until then, can you please just wait in your room? I need to talk you about something anyway.”

\---------

Jim was lying on his bed with his arms crossed over his face. He always felt bad for making his mom worry, especially about him. He knew he gave her loads of trouble and had her at the end of her rope but he couldn’t help it. It was like whenever he was around his mom all the attitude just came out. He didn’t know why, he loved her, he truly did, but he never really showed it. Maybe if he did, she wouldn’t be as desperate as she was now to try and fix everything. 

He rolled over and dropped his arms. He really didn’t know what to do. 

As he was thinking everything over, he heard voices coming from down the hall. Jim’s eyes glanced halfway up to the light that flowed from under his door from the hallway and halfheartedly listened to the conversation of the guests who were passing by. 

“...see that Jim fella today? He looked like something the cat dragged in!”

“Sure did, mate, he’s weird as ever.” 

“It’s no wonder that the innkeeper works so hard-if I had a kid like that I probably would’ve let the coppers take him.” 

“Wish she would-it’s not like the village likes him any. Probably would be a good thing if he just left. It’s not like he would be missed, eh? Doesn’t have a job, doesn’t contribute, if it weren’t for his mother, the village probably woulda run him out by now..” 

“Boy, if that ain’t the truth, I tell ya, he was a bit too strange even when he was a boy, ya know? My son tells me…”

Jim rolled over to face the wall. He just couldn’t bare to listen to this anymore. He just couldn’t deal with this village or the people that lived there anymore. It was almost to the point where he just couldn’t bare with himself anymore. 

He closed his eyes tightly, as if the darkness could take away the pain.

Jim didn’t even realize that he fell asleep until he felt his mom’s hand on his shoulder to wake him up. It was much more quieter now than it had been hours ago. The guests must’ve finally all shuffled off to bed at this point. He sat up and rubbed the rest of the sleep from his eyes, blinking at the light in the room. Seeing his mom standing above him, he knew that she turned the light on because it was definitely off when he had went to sleep.

 

“Hi, honey,” Sarah said as she sat down on his bed. She wiped her hands on her apron and fidgeted awkwardly. “I’m sorry about earlier, I was just so stressed with the guests and-.” 

“It’s okay, mom, you don’t need to apologize.” Jim gave her an awkward smile. “I know I’m a handful at times.” 

A moment of silence fell over them as they both struggled to find something to say to the other. It was true that Jim was indeed a handful and it was hard to keep up with him. But he was exceptionally smart, he could build his own solar surfer and could ever since he was a child. He loved adventure and could explore until the cows came home (and often would, which resulted in more trouble). But while he could get in immeasurable amounts of trouble, Sarah was still able to see the adventure in his eyes, the child she so desperately wanted to know and love. The two of them were always just shy of being connected with one another and ever since his father left, Jim hadn’t been the same child he once was. There was something gone from him that just made it feel awkward to try and reach out to him. But a mother must and Sarah never stopped trying.

“Jim,” she started and stopped herself, searching for the right words. “I don’t know what to do anymore. I’ve tried everything I could and I just...you keep...I’m not….” She sighed and threw her hands down in her lap. Another moment of silence came before she was able to piece together a sentence, picking each word out with practiced ease. “I’m not sure I know what to do with you anymore. I’m sorry, I feel like I…” she trailed off once again and looked at her only son. 

“I feel like I failed as a mother.” 

The look of utter defeat was on her face. It was one of just complete exhaustion and (dare he think it)...hopelessness. It stung his heart to see her like this, it truly did. He felt the guilt of all the world come upon his shoulders and squeeze his chest until it felt like it was being crushed. But no words came to his aid. There wasn’t anything he could say for there wasn’t anything he could deny. Maybe if his father stayed, things would be different, but that wasn’t the case. Maybe if he were just a bit more respectful of authority, she wouldn’t have such a hard time dealing with Jim. Maybe it- no….There could’ve been a thousand what if’s he could play with to try and justify where things went astray, but that wasn’t the case and things were as they were. There wasn’t any point to try and come up with something to change it. 

Sarah sighed and wiped at her eyes, stubbornly trying to keep her face straight as best as she could. “Right. Jim, there’s no point beating around the bush, not anymore. Delbert is...he’s going to this group gathering, a convention I guess, for astronomers like him. He’s giving a speech on the research he’s been doing lately. We talked it over when he stopped by tonight and….” She looked up at him like he was going to hate her. “You’re going with him. He offered to take you with him so you’d learn ‘life’s lessons of being a man’ from him.” With a final deep breath of air, Sarah rushed out the last sentence before she could take it all back. “You leave tomorrow.” 

Jim thought it over in his head. He was being sent away by his mother to go on a trip with Doppler. While he was a family friend, he could be a bit...dull sometimes to listen to. Especially when he drones on and on about stars. Jim was about to protest when the guests’ conversation rang back in his head and he hesitated. Maybe it would be better to go. After all, he was going to leave the village, most likely for a long time. He probably would even leave the planet! It was a dream to leave this backwater rock, namely the village, and even if he had to listen to Doppler’s droning it would be worth it. Besides, maybe this journey would teach him a few things. Life lessons or not, it seemed like it would be worth it. Anything to get out of this hellhole. 

Trying to sound even about it, Jim shrugged and simply said that he’d be okay with going. His mother seemed to be stunned at his response. She had doubted his words that he was okay with it at first, but he convinced her that he was really for it. Sarah had apparently thought that he was going to hate her for having to resort to sending him away on this trip and was so surprised with relief that she allowed a few tears to escape as she hugged him tightly. He returned the hug gently and let his eyes close. Besides, even if he wasn’t excited about going, he had to do something for his mom. This guilt was going to kill him if he continued on like this.


End file.
